today,
and have been since Christianity first began to divide into sects and
parties.

But this is a digression. While I recognized some merit in nearly all
the creeds, I firmly believed mine the best. My faith in, and devotion
to the Methodist Church had become so intense that I believed the sum
total of all theological knowledge was concentrated and embodied in
John Wesley. There could be no more progress, no more discovery. It
was a finished science, and John Wesley finished it. There are
thousands who still think so, even to this day! I looked back over
history to the days of apostolic purity, followed the trend of
theological thought in its decline into error and superstition, thru
the dark ages, to the first glimmer of light in Wickliffe, followed by
Huss, until the flame of the Reformation sprang up in Luther, Zwingli
and Calvin, followed by Knox and Arminius; but Wesley was the end of
knowledge, and wisdom died with him.

Yes, I was soon able to defend and prove my creed to the satisfaction
of myself and my superiors. But now I wanted to go further. I wanted
to _prove_ the _proof_. As I grew older and my mind broadened I
desired to drink deeper from the fountains of knowledge. I started out
with the best materials available to me to make a critical study of the
Bible. Up to this time I had studied the Bible only superficially. I
had accepted it as truth, as divine, as inspired, as infallible, except
the doubts of my school days before described, and these I had long
since cast aside. I had studied the Bible as the great mass of
Christians study it today--to support and defend preconceived opinions,
most of which I had inherited. Now I was to seek for basic principles.
I wanted to know just who wrote each book of the Bible, when he wrote
it and why, and just what the specific proofs were as to these facts
and of its divine inspiration.

In looking back over the period of years that have since intervened, I
am still unable to perceive any selfish, egotistical motive in these my
ambitions. My unquenchable thirst for knowledge was inspired solely by
my desire to increase my efficiency in that vocation to which I
sincerely believed I was divinely called.

I never had the opportunity of taking a Divinity Course in a Divinity
School. But both the great branches of the Methodist Church require
all its ministers, before final ordination, to take a prescribed course
of study, somewhat after the corres